Date-rape Drug Progesterex Causes Amnesia, Sterilization

Rape is a scary subject, and nothing to joke about. Yet some sicko must of thought it was pretty damn funny, and launched a hoax that’s scaring people around the world.

The hoax — which has been circulating via e-mail since 1999 — claims that a new drug called Progesterex which is being used with a “date rape” drug called Rohypnol. Women dosed with these drugs wake up the next morning without remembering a thing, and — worse yet — are completely sterilized. The e-mail warns that this terrible duo is about to wash across college campuses.

Or so says the hoax. In reality, no such drug exists.

Here’s the original e-mail:

This version was collected on May 2, 2001:

this is really scary – i dont know whether this is true but if it is please everyone look after youselves

Please be very aware of this. It’s just awful. Please forward on to any female friends or your girlfriends etc. Ladies, be more alert and cautious when getting a drink offer from a guy. Good guys out there, please forward this message to your lady friends.

And boyfriends, take heed. There is a new drug that has been out for less than a year. Progesterex is available to vets to sterilize large animals. Rumour has it that the Progesterex is being used together with Rohypnol, the date rape drug. As with Rohypnol, all they have to to is drop it into the girl’s drink. The girl can’t remember a thing the next morning, of all that has taken place the night before. Progesterex, which dissolves in drinks just as easily, is such that the victim doesn’t conceive from the rape and the rapist needn’t worry about having a paternity test identifying him months later. The drug’s effects AREN’T TEMPORARY.

Progesterex was designed to sterilize horses. Any female that takes it WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO CONCEIVE. The crooks can get this drug from anyone who is in the vet school of any university. It’s that easy, and Progesterex is about to breakout big on campuses everywhere. Believe it or not, there is even a site on the internet telling people how to use it. Please forward this to everyone you know, especially the gals.

Andrea Leahy
Women’s Rights Officer
Union of Students, Ireland

Scary stuff eh? This e-mail reminds me a bit of the classic kidney thieves urban legend in which a young man or woman parties hard at a bar, does some unnamed drugs, and wakes up the next morning with their kidneys missing.

As with that legend, this hoax features a person who succumbs to a drug, and wakes to find an irreplaceable part of herself gone.

This one’s based more in reality though — Rohypnol is a real drug, and it has been used by unsavory individuals to commit sexual assualts against women. However, after scouring the net for references to Progesterex, the only thing I found was page after page debunking this very hoax. To the best of my knowledge — and everyone else I’ve read who’s looked at this hoax — the drug just doesn’t exist.

Snopes.com: A short debunking of an earlier version (circa 1999) of this hoax.

Go Ask Alice: The earlier version of the hoax included a link to Go Ask Alice, a web-based service on the Columbia University web site that answers health related questions. This page debunks the hoax.

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Nuketown is a speculative fiction website that's been published continuously since 1996.

It's publishing focus is articles, reviews and editorials about science fiction, fantasy, and horror with heroic or libertarian overtones. It covers a variety of topics within the speculative fiction genre, including games, movies, soundtracks, books, and websites.